Category: Manchester City

Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku could miss the Manchester derby at the weekend after he was not named in the squad for Wednesday’s trip to Juventus. The 25-year-old Belgian was dropped to the bench for the match against Everton two weeks ago and then missed the win at Bournemouth because of an injury. “He’s injured for tomorrow, I’m not sure for Sunday,” United manager Jose Mourinho said. Lukaku has only scored four goals in 14 matches for United this season. The last of those came in the 2-1 win at…

Kevin De Bruyne fears his knee injury may rule him out for at least a month, with the Manchester City player waiting on the results of further tests. The Belgian suffered the problem to his left knee in the 86th minute of Thursday’s 2-0 Carabao Cup win at home to Fulham. This was only De Bruyne’s second start since a three-month absence following ligament damage to his right knee. In January 2016 De Bruyne also seriously injured his right knee and ankle ligaments. If the 27-year-old is out for a sustained period it…

Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling has verbally agreed a lucrative new five-year contract. Sterling’s current deal expires in 2020 and talks about an extension have been ongoing for several months. Once signed, the contract, thought to be around £300,000-a-week, will make Sterling one of the highest-paid players in the Premier League. The 23-year-old joined City from Liverpool in 2015 in a deal that could cost the Blues £49m. He has benefited hugely from the arrival of Pep Guardiola as manager at Etihad Stadium and scored 18 goals in City’s Premier…

Borussia Dortmund teenager Jadon Sancho was a surprise selection when England manager Gareth Southgate named a 25-man squad on Thursday for this month’s Nations League matches away to Croatia and Spain. Mason Mount and James Maddison were also given their first senior England call-ups by Southgate as it was announced that the 48-year-old had signed a new contract that will keep him with the national side until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The 18-year-old Sancho was called up having already played in the Champions League for German club Dortmund, with…

Kylian Mbappe is the favourite to become the first two-time winner of the Golden Boy award after being named among the 40-man shortlist by the Italian newspaper Tuttosport. Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Manchester City’s Phil Foden are on the shortlist for the award established in 2003 given to the best young player in Europe under the age of 21, with people putting their new customer betting offers on the Reds defender. Everton midfielder Tom Davies and Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot also make the 40-man shortlist. Full-back Alexander-Arnold, 19, played in Liverpool’s…

Pep Guardiola says there is no chance of Manchester City signing Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain. City had been linked with a fresh, £200 million move for Mbappe over the weekend. The Premier League side have tried to buy the World Cup winner on two previous occasions; Monaco rejected an approach in the summer of 2016 when he was still largely unknown outside of France, while in 2017 they were beaten to his signature by PSG. In the past week UEFA has reopened an investigation into PSG’s finances, and it was subsequently…

Sergio Aguero has signed a one-year contract extension with Manchester City, the Premier League champions have announced. The Argentina striker, who became City’s record goalscorer last season, is now committed to the club until 2021. Aguero, 30, has won three Premier League titles and scored 204 goals since joining City from Atletico Madrid in 2011. Aguero said: “I am happy for this additional year. My idea was being here for 10 years. I’ve been here for seven years, it’s going to be 10 when the contract expires. “This was the main reason…

Pep Guardiola has admitted being angry with his Manchester City players despite their convincing 3-0 victory against Fulham at the Etihad Stadium. City were sloppy at times and Guardiola was unhappy at what he perceived as a slip from his side’s usual high standards. He pointed to a second-half Bernardo Silva miss to highlight the point. “The ball got passed to Bernardo and I said: ‘It is impossible that he is going to miss it because of his quality,’” the manager said. “But he missed it and I said: ‘Wow.’ “My reaction…

Manchester City could be without the services of Sergio Aguero for their Champions League opener against Lyon on Wednesday after the star striker picked up an ankle injury on Saturday. Aguero hurt his ankle in City’s 3-0 Premier League triumph over Fulham and will now undergo checks by the club’s medical staff according to manager Pep Guardiola. “It was something in the ankle,” Guardiola told the press after the game. “He went up to head a cross and when he fell down, he felt something.” Aguero was replaced by Gabriel…

Leroy Sane will miss Germany’s friendly with Peru on Sunday after leaving the team’s hotel for “private reasons”, the German FA, DFB, has announced. The 22-year-old who was surprisingly left out of Germany’s World Cup squad in the summer made a seven-minute cameo in his side’s Uefa Nations League 0-0 opener against world champions France on Thursday. Sane has endured a difficult few months since being nominated for various individual Premier League awards at the end of last season and has lost his place in Manchester City’s starting XI. Germany confirmed Sane…

Chelsea midfielder Jorginho agreed to terms of a move to Manchester City before his eventual transfer from Napoli to the London club but the English champions couldn’t reach a deal with the Serie A side, according to the player’s agent. The Italy international signed for the Blues for £52m after leaving Serie A, following Maurizio Sarri to the club who left Naples to replace Antonio Conte as manager this summer. The 26-year-old has made an impressive start to life in Chelsea blue but the club weren’t his first choice destination having…

Raheem Sterling is set to miss England’s first fixtures since the World Cup after the winger withdrew from the squad preparing to face Spain in the Nations League opener and a friendly against Switzerland with a back injury. The Manchester City forward, who has started the season in fine form including the first in his club’s 2-1 win over Newcastle at the weekend, will remain at his club for treatment, with England manager Gareth Southgate not intent on calling up a replacement. The other 22 players reported for duty at…

Former Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has completed his move to Olympiakos after being released at the end of his contract with the Premier League champions at the end of last season. Toure left the Greek club in 2006 for Monaco, and was welcomed back by the fans who lit flares and he went on the pitch after their 5-0 win over PAS Giannina on Sunday. “It is an honour to be back at Olympiacos,” Toure said. It is an honour to be back at @olympiacos_org ! 😊 When I…

Yaya Toure has passed a medical in London and is on the verge of joining a new club according to his agent. The 35-year-old has been without a club since his release from Manchester City in the summer. His agent Dimitry Seluk has claimed Toure is close to a new club but has denied suggestions West Ham are in the running. Manuel Pellegrini, who won the league with Toure at Manchester City in 2014 had been linked with a move. 🔥🔥🔥 Toure @YayaToure has passed a medical in London. Yaya is…

Ilkay Gundogan has offered his support to Mesut Ozil after his claims of racism in the German national football set-up. Ozil announced last month that he would no longer play for Germany so long as he felt like a victim of “racism and disrespect” from the German Football Association. The Arsenal midfielder was part of Germany’s failed World Cup squad this summer, with his participation in the tournament questioned by many after an image emerged of him posing with controversial Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Gundogan, who also posed for the pictures, and…

Manchester City have recalled their goalkeeper Aro Muric from his loan spell at the Dutch club NAC Breda following the injury to Claudio Bravo. Pep Guardiola’s No 2 keeper Bravo faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after injuring his achilles tendon in training on Tuesday, leaving City short of cover for their first-choice Ederson. However, both clubs have announced that Muric, 19, will now return to Manchester, and the former Swiss youth international could be in the squad to face Wolves on Saturday. City allowed Joe Hart to join Burnley…

Paul Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, has added to the turmoil around Manchester United by attacking Paul Scholes and joking that the club’s former midfielder should be appointed sports director and advise Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman, to sell the Frenchman. Raiola’s intervention came after Scholes criticised Pogba’s performance in the defeat at Brighton and said there was “a lack of leaders in the team”. Pogba is the captain. In two tweets on Tuesday morning Raiola responded: “Some people need to talk for fear of being forgotten. Paul Scholes wouldn’t recognize a leader if he…

Manchester City are facing a potential goalkeeper shortage after their second-choice goalkeeper Claudio Bravo suffered an achilles tendon injury in training and is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines. The Premier League champions have announced the Chilean was hurt during a session on Monday and the injury was confirmed following scans. No timescale has yet been put on the 35-year-old’s return and he will now travel to Barcelona for specialist assessment later in the week. .@C1audioBravo has today sustained an achilles tendon injury in training. He underwent scans this afternoon…

Benjamin Mendy has said he is taking Pep Guardiola’s advice by staying off social media when at Manchester City’s training ground or in the dressing room. The Frenchman has a huge following on social media with 987,000 and 2.1m followers on Twitter and Instagram respectively. “Every time I am with my phone I am on Instagram or Twitter and [so] now I need to be careful,” Mendy said. “When I am at the training centre, the CFA [City Football Academy], I don’t use my phone but instead I listen to…

José Mourinho has criticised Manchester City over their new documentary All or Nothing, accusing the club of lacking class and respect. “If you are a rich club you can buy all the top players but you cannot buy class,” the Manchester United manager said. “I haven’t seen the movie [sic] but I know a few things about it and that is my first reaction.” City’s TV series is now showing on Amazon and it significantly features the United manager, even including footage of Mourinho discussing why Kevin De Bruyne was sold during their…

Manchester City have been dealt a major blow in their title defence as midfielder Kevin De Bruyne suffered a knee injury in training on Wednesday. De Bruyne was immediately sent for tests on suspected ligament damage but later appeared with his teammates in Manchester at the premiere of All or Nothing, a documentary about last season’s champions to be aired on Amazon Prime, on crutches and with his right knee heavily strapped. The extent of the injury is still unknown although there are fears the Belgian international could be out…

Jürgen Klopp has likened Liverpool to Rocky Balboa on the basis they must work and compete harder than any of their rivals to win the Premier League title. The Liverpool manager, a huge fan of the Rocky films, said: “We are still Rocky Balboa, not Ivan Drago.” The analogy was not that Liverpool are underdogs, he later explained, but that they must be prepared to sacrifice everything to end the club’s current 28-year wait for a 19th league championship. “It’s not about being the underdog, not one little bit,” said Klopp. “I…

Burnley have completed the signing of Joe Hart from Manchester City on a two-year deal for a fee in the region of £3.5m. The move to Turf Moor ends Hart’s 12-year association with the Premier League champions where he was previously undisputed first choice before Pep Guardiola’s 2016 arrival meant he became surplus to requirements. Hart spent the past two seasons on loan at Torino and West Ham but failed to establish himself at either club, and subsequently missed out on England’s World Cup squad. Burnley manager Sean Dyche did…

Manchester City defeated Chelsea 2-0 to lift the curtain-raising Community Shield courtesy of two goals from Sergio Aguero in either half at Wembley on Sunday. The Argentine striker opened the scoring in the 13th minute as he drove home with his left foot, low through Rudiger’s legs and across Caballero into the bottom corner. The goal came about through the impressive Phil Foden’s decisive probing that began from just right of centre with Chelsea offering no resistance. Aguero doubled City’s advantage 13 minutes into the second period when John Stones stopped…

Samir Nasri has had his doping ban increased from six to 18 months following Uefa’s ethics and disciplinary inspector’s decision to appeal the original sentence that was deemed too lenient. Nasri was given the ban in February after receiving an intravenous treatment at a Los Angeles clinic in breach of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) rules. Uefa’s ethics and disciplinary inspector argued that ban was insufficient and on Wednesday the European governing body extended his suspension to 18 months. The ban is backdated to 1 July, 2017, even though Nasri has…